“Ask, What I will give to you” by Rev Samuel Mametsa,SundayService, the 30th September 2012.

Rev Samuel Mametsa preaching whilst Ps Mboneni Rathiyaya.

Scripture reading: 2 Chronicles 1:7-12 “7 On that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, "Ask! What shall I give you?" 8 And Solomon said to God: "You have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let Your promise to David my father be established, for You have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?" 11 Then God said to Solomon: "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life — but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king — 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like."” 2 Chron 1:7-12, NKJV. Let me tell you about this man Solomon. You know about him and have heard a lot about him. According to the ways of this world, he is the illegitimate child of King David. According to God’s eyes, he was not an illegitimate child. The Illegitimate people were his mom and dad, not him. I mean in the eyes and the wisdom of God. When God wants to use you, He doesn’t check who is your mom, dad or your background. It doesn’t matter to God, whether people call you an illegitimate child, it is not so with God. In this text the bible tells us that God says to the so called illegitimate child “Ask, what I will give to you.” To this very same illegitimate child! What do you say?God says, Solomon, you illegitimate child, “Ask, what I will give to you.” Don’t allow your circumstances to prevent you from the call of God, or the purposes of God. If God has called you for something, do that which he has called you for. Don’t allow the situation to tell you that you are not worthy.Many undermine themselves; I can’t do this and that because I come from such and such a family: poor, sinful etc name it. Not to God, God looks at you. It doesn’t matter if you are an illegitimate child or not. God doesn’t see you as the world sees you. He says “Ask, what I will give to you.” Let me tell you about Solomon: King David killed somebody’s husband so that he can take his wife and after this the two of them bore Solomon. In your mind you may be saying “What’s wrong with this God? How can He use this illegitimate child, born out of this kind of marriage?” I want you to understand this God. He doesn’t care what you are doing. He is more concerned about your heart: what it says and thinks about Him. King Solomon is known to have married 700 wives and 300 concubines. When you add them, he had a total of 1000 women in his life. God proceeded to say to this man: “Ask, what I will give to you.” This man with so many wives, so many concubines: fornicating etcWhat does it mean? The God that we worship, checks our hearts. What is in your heart? Amongst all the children of Israel, God decided to choose Solomon. Why? His heart’s desire was to build the house of God. He wanted to please the Lord even if his ways were crooked. He wanted to make sure that he house of God should be built. Let me ask you this question? Why did God choose to continue to bless him, even if he was sinning with so many women? God still goes to him and say to him “Ask, what I will give to you.” The reason why God was forced to bless King Solomon was that King Solomon inherited the sin from his father king David. He continued in the sinful bloodline of his father. King David is the one who started with the adultery. This made God not to look at these many other things that King Solomon was doing. Your foundation is the destiny of your children. That is why you find people saying to children “Yes, you take this bad habit from your dad.” Why do you say this?To inherit doesn’t mean God will be forced to find you guilty. The question is how are you going to live? King Solomon’s heart wanted God but his blood (body, flesh) followed after his father’s sinfulness. Heritage can force you to sin against God. Many of us have grown with a background of ancestral worship and many are not able to come out of this. God sees this and will say: I can see your heart but I can see that the devil is using your inherited sins to hold you back.When you work for God you must understand God. In this text the bible (in verse 7) says King Solomon was surprised when God came to speak to him. King Solomon knew he was living in sin. In verse 8, King Solomon didn’t respond to God. Some people do this. They don’t answer when you ask them questions. “8 And Solomon said to God: "You have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place.” 2 Chron 1:8, NKJV. God asked him “Ask, what I will give to you.” He was just supposed to have said: I want this and that. But instead he is telling God things that God already knows. Even in verse 9 he still hasn’t answered the question. He continues to say to God “9 Now, O Lord God, let Your promise to David my father be established, for You have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.” 2 Chron 1:12, NKJV. This is still not an answer. If God, says “Ask, what I will give to you.” You are not supposed to tell God stories but what you want. It is only in verse 10, that King Solomon responds: “10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?"” 2 Chron 1:10, NKJV.This request is from an illegitimate child. He says to God, give me wisdom. He says to God “This is what is in my heart.” Have you ever asked God, for wisdom in your prayers? God had put something in Solomon, God knew something in Solomon. You can’t become rich unless you have wisdom. People that are wealthy are wise. God knew that this one is too clever. In this world you can’t survive unless you are wise. King Solomon knew that the wealth of this world is wisdom. Supposing somebody who has two legs, two eyes, but no wisdom sits at home, day in, day out. At the end of the day this person says “This life is boring.I am just a poor person.” I am talking about somebody who has a healthy body, two hands, and two eyes but because of lack of wisdom he just sits all day for days, weeks, months and years.There may also be another person with two hands, two eyes, etc every morning, he wakes up and makes a plan. The one with wisdom looks at his yard and realises that it is very big and decides to plant a million cabbages and sells them. At the end of the day, that person is now a millionaire. The one with wisdom doesn’t check what other people are doing. A cabbage, only takes about 3 months. So, if you plant a million cabbages in your yard, and sell them at R1 per cabbage. How much do you have? I am talking about wisdom. I am talking about what King Solomon asked for. Not about a bag that will fall from heaven or something that you will rob somebody for etc. In any event today, you can’t find a cabbage of R1 it is about R7 to R15. Just do the calculations: you would be a multimillionaire by the end of the 3 months. In verse 11 God answers Solomon “11 Then God said to Solomon: "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies,”2 Chron 1:11, NKJV.Many would have asked for riches. Many fast long fasts to become rich. They want to be filthy rich. Let me tell you this, wisdom is wealth. Listen to God: I will give you your heart’s desire. “…or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life…”2 Chron 1:11, NKJV. There are people who are praying for the death of their enemies.“...wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor,…”2 Chron 1:12, NKJV. It means that we are not supposed to ask for riches, God knows that we need the riches and wealth. In other words God is saying: wisdom and riches go hand in hand with wisdom. It comes as a package and I can’t separate them. God says: “…wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor,…” 2 Chron 1:12, NKJV. These things are a package: a rich person is well respected. Let me say: wisdom brings wealth and riches, wealth and riches bring respect and honour. It is a package. People check what you have and the more you have the more they respect and honour you. Just check when you enter into a parking lot especially when there is a bigger, luxurious car entering the parking lot at the same time with you. The rich guy will receive more respect and more attention. People that are wise are rich and dignified. God says: 2 Chron 1:12wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; but God says I will add “…and I will give you riches and wealth and honor,…”NKJV.Let’s stop pestering God for riches and wealth. It doesn’t mean that if he had asked for riches God would not have given him but God was impressed. It also follows that if Solomon could ask for wisdom and knowledge then already he is a wise man.“16 Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. 17 And one woman said, "O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne." 22 Then the other woman said, "No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." And the first woman said, "No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." Thus they spoke before the king. 23 And the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one'; and the other says, 'No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" 24 Then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other." 26 Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, "O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!" But the other said, "Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him." 27 So the king answered and said, "Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother."”1 Kings 3: 16-27, NKJV.I want you to see wisdom. Solomon knew he was to face a mammoth task. To be a king is to receive something big. The challenges and the problems are also bigger. You are also hated by the people. That is why King Solomon said “Thank you for making me a king, it is hard to lead people, I would rather be poor but give me wisdom to lead your people.”If you ask God for wisdom you are able to face the challenges that come to your house / family. God had already granted him wisdom. It was like God was testing this man. The bible says two prostitutes came. Why is the bible emphasizing on the fact that they were both prostitutes? The bible says they were fighting for one child. But the bible emphasizes the fact that they were prostitutes. The bible wants us to be aware that these children had no fathers as their mothers were prostitutes. It means these women were not married: how else would she go drinking with a husband. No husband would wait for her? These two women were good friends. The one got drunk and slept on her baby and killed the baby. The trouble started because of the liquor: When you sleep being drunk you are no longer yourself. How does one sleep on top of a baby, until it dies? Obviously the child cried in pain but the mom was snoring away. It means the baby cried until it died. The liquor was doing its work. The mom was snoring like a frog. The child didn’t ask to be born. In the morning, the mom wakes up with a hang-over and shakes the child only to find the baby is dead. The other woman was also still sleeping, snoring. It is better because her child was still alive. The one, who killed her child, took her dead baby and swopped them. The live baby was suckling on the breast and because she was pulled away, the baby cried until the mom woke up and now they started to fight for the babies. Obviously these babies could not have looked alike. Their mothers did not look the same. They argued all the way to the king’s palace. The king was watching them. They continued to argue in front of the king. The king was stuck but asked them to explain the problem and they both told their sides of the story. It is not easy to be a ruler. But the king said “I asked for wisdom from God. God I fear you because you are God. Please let that wisdom work for me now. Then he called and said bring a sword so we can cut this baby in half.”The one who killed her baby says “Yes, kill this baby; it mustn’t be mine or hers.” The king said to the other woman: “What do you say?” She replied “Don’t kill the baby, give her the baby.” And the king said “Give this woman this baby.” The kind said to the woman who had killed her baby “What kind of a woman are you? The one who says this is my baby but at the same time you are saying this baby should be killed? What kind of mother are you? Go and bury your dead child.” If the king was not wise he would have killed the baby. “6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” James 1:6, NKJV. God is a generous God. If you have a problem, ask God for wisdom, don’t go and challenge the problem. If you have no wisdom, ask God for wisdom.The bible says we live by wisdom, and we become wealth through wisdom. When we are wise, we won't just seat around waiting. We will devise means. We can’t seat and wait for grants. Grants will come to an end. The bible says the one who doesn’t work must not eat. If you see three cripple people: one without hands and the one without eyes, and the one without legs: The one would say “If I had hands I would not be poor.” The other would say “If I had eyes I would not be poor.” The other would say “If I had legs I would not be poor.”Why do you allow yourself to suffer when you are whole? Some of you even say “I can’t go to church without shoes.” If you seat down and fold your arms nothing will happen and you will end up blaming God, blaming other people for your condition.